Rats in the yard before chickens

[Caitmorgan222]

I've gathered from the various threads that rats are the most annoying chicken pest/ borderline impossible to get rid of and we have them Rats Of NIMH style, thriving for God knows how many generations, in a deep, hollow mimosa tree stump that gives dark, mystical portallllll! Lmao. Hardware cloth and a priest perhaps?? Lol but fr chickens are the heros journey like wdy mean I have to smoke out the witch hole haha.
Still building the coop. My chicks aren't outside yet. These are small rats or giant mice lol. They've been thriving there even before we moved in. This house was empty before that so I have a hard time believing I can starve them out of their stump kingdom.

I'll be using a bucket feeder and covering the ports every night and so much hardware cloth. Need to hit them before the chickens and food go out there but I don't want to use poison. If they come inside I use catch and release traps. I'm afraid to flood the hole but probably the move with my dogs on deck. They've caught a couple before. Any tips appreciated.

 

[Mountain Roost]

What about taking the approach of digging or clearing it out with a shovel and branch pruners. Remove as much plant matter as you can and dig out the mesh and see if you can fill in the hole. Flooding it and adding dirt in turn could help fill it down deep. Remove the habitat of the rats. Then your dogs will have a better chance of keeping them at bay with nowhere to hide. Just a thought.

 

[Caitmorgan222]

What about taking the approach of digging or clearing it out with a shovel and branch pruners. Remove as much plant matter as you can and dig out the mesh and see if you can fill in the hole. Flooding it and adding dirt in turn could help fill it down deep. Remove the habitat of the rats. Then your dogs will have a better chance of keeping them at bay with nowhere to hide. Just a thought.

I think they tried some version of that before we moved in. Took awhile for me to figure out that there was even a plant there. Worth a shot. It's so spooky though I'm basically clairvoyant and when we moved in I was bothered by what I perceive to be an angry nature entity. I pushed it back and into that hole and haven't been bothered in my house much in the year but now I have to clear the hole lol. Very woo I know but I'm scared lolol.

 

[Mountain Roost]

Do a ritual before and after to alleviate your concerns. Better to move that type of energy onward.

 

[Caitmorgan222]

Do a ritual before and after to alleviate your concerns. Better to move that type of energy onward.

Thank you and I agree! Thought it was very cool of me to not bind and banish initially but now that I got chickens, it has to go